Summary

The Permian Basin is one of the top five resource plays in the United States and consists of a number of stacked pay zones. Two of these formations, the Wolfcamp shale and Bone Spring (Wolfbone), together deliver a pay zone thickness of 1,000 to 1,500 ft. Horizontal completions in the shales are just beginning and have yet to be proven; however, operators are successfully exploiting the reserves through vertical wells. By comparing the “plug and perf” (CLPP) method and open hole multistage systems (OHMS), this paper highlights OHMS as a long-term solution for operators completing vertical wells in stacked pay.